THAT " HANGED " CHAIR.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 33, 25 June 1877, Page 2

THAT " HANGED " CHAIR.

[to thb emtob ihanoahtta times.] Sib,— lb glancing over yoar content porar/ of Saturday, my eye casually fell upon the following, presamedly intended lo apply in a " skittish " manner to the Council, the bridge, and the local Engineer :— •'* Euclid, Book 1., P/ob. sj" and the expression struck me as rather singular. I thought in my school-boy days I knew something of that ancient md venerable mathematician, but could sot recollect the problem in question. I knew that there was such a thing as " Proposition 6, Book I," usually styied the Pen* Asshtorium, from a comparison of (he difficulty experienced by a boy in getting through that proposition aud a donkey with a load getting over a bridge somewhat elevated in the centre o r towards the ends. Now, the wid pro* position— the only one here applicable— appears to be a theorem, not a problem ; therefore the inference is that however well versed the author of the lines on the wire bridge may be in a knowledge of poetry and the manner of stringing un»> meaning stanzas together, he is quite ignorant of Euclid's Elements, one of the most essential of the mathematical sciences, with which every school-boy of moderate attainments should be familiar. I am, &c, Man in the Chaib. June 24th, 1177.